My Last Goodbye
by Akarui KH
Summary: Somewhat sappy MatthewLeila drabble. Ever wonder exactly how that hour or so when Matthew was burying Leila went in chapter 18? So did I...


A/N – This took a lot longer then I suspected it would. Oo Not quite what I was going for, but I like it anyway. Matthew POV, a Matthew/Leila fic. This is my first Fire Emblem fic so please review!  
  
Disclaimer – It's all Nintendo's...none of it is mine. If Fire Emblem was mine, it wouldn't be as good – and certain characters would be SO dead. XD  
  
"My Last Goodbye"  
  
I am numb with shock.  
  
As Lord Hector and Lady Lyndis depart, I bend down and observe the corpse lying before me on the clammy ground. "Leila..."  
  
It's her, definitely. She's lying on the ground, dead, bearing no real differences to the way she looked the last time I saw her. Same vibrant red hair and beautiful pale skin, same height, she's even still wearing the same old cloak. Somehow in my grief I almost crack a smile.  
  
Slowly I reach out and touch her hand. It's cold, like ice. No sign of life remains in her. Still clutching Leila's cold hand, with my free hand I push back the thick red bangs that cover one of her eyes. Both are closed. Maybe it's better that way, better that I don't have to look into her dead eyes...  
  
I blink back tears. I mustn't cry. Leila wouldn't want me to cry. What would she want me to do? Would she want me to avenge her death, or forget the past? I am confused. I can't think straight. With a sigh, I place my arms under her knees and arms, lifting her body tenderly from the forest floor as I get up.  
  
"It's time to find a place for you to rest, Leila." I say. I'm talking to her, just like she was here with me. In honesty I feel as though she were, as if she wasn't dead at all. Her presence lingers over me like the shadows of the deep forest of Valor.  
  
The fog is thick here on Valor Isle, especially in this sinister, dark forest. I remember the words from the sign that Lord Hector had pointed out when we first got here – "Enter and be Lost." Had Leila lost her life just now, in the forest? Or was this all a deadly trap?  
  
Her body is not terribly ravaged except at the back, where two long and almost even gashes still ooze scarlet blood. It looks like the work of a dagger or sword – not the claws of some beast.  
  
No, Leila was not killed in the forest. She was murdered. Murdered and left here to be found.  
  
This was the work of the Black Fang.  
  
"Villains..." I hiss, my emotions flying from sadness to anger with tears stinging my auburn eyes. Why hadn't it occurred to me earlier that the penalty for traitors among the Black Fang was death? I shouldn't have let Leila take the mission, not alone...it was too dangerous.  
  
'We're spies, Matthew. Everything we do is dangerous.' Her words echo in my mind. Yes, that was true. Besides, Leila always loved the elements of challenge and risk...she wouldn't have liked it for me to tag along with her. I had my own mission with Lord Hector and Lord Eliwood, anyway. My own job.  
  
Finally the trees break and I stumble into a hazy clearing. The grass is tall and the canopy of the trees shades the clearing from light, only a few beams of sun making it through, and even then the thickening fog distorts the light. The forest wall would protect it from most outsiders. It was safe. It was private. This would be the perfect place to put Leila's body to rest.  
  
No, it wouldn't.  
  
The perfect place would be somewhere in Ostia, where she belongs. A nice proper grave among the greatest of Ostian soldiers – or maybe even the royal family. She was amazing. So much more than I'd ever be, and I knew it.  
  
I gently lay her cold and lifeless body down on the grass. I grab a fallen branch and thrust it into the earth, starting to dig a makeshift grave. This takes a long time, and with every thrust I pour more angry energy into the work until tears begin to roll down my cheeks.  
  
I hate everything about this.  
  
I hate digging Leila's grave. I hate Valor Isle. I hate being so alone. Alone. I miss the companionship that I had grown so accustomed to – Hector, Lyn, Eliwood, Guy – all the others. I have only been alone for perhaps an hour or less, by I hate it.  
  
Most of all I hate the fact that any of this had to happen in the first place.  
  
At last the work is done. Leila's tomb is prepared. I drop the branch to the ground and turn to Leila. Slowly I make my way over and pick her up, softly as though she could still feel, and slowly I lower her corpse into the earth.  
  
"You blundered, Leila." I say as she lies in the grave, not having the heart to cover her up.  
  
"You really screwed up this time." I try to laugh but can only smirk as the tears roll down.  
  
"I was going to ask you...to put this life behind you..." I say, "We could've started a new life – but I guess not, eh? Waited too long..."  
  
Shaking my head, I remind myself that Leila cannot hear me. If she were here watching me as I spoke with her own dead body, she'd probably be laughing at me. It was a stupid thing to do, try and speak with a corpse.  
  
I suppose it's time now to bury Leila and meet up with the rest of the gang. I fill the tomb with the dirt and grass I had uplifted in the digging until nothing is left but a small mound and I can no longer see Leila. I shove the stick into the ground near the place where her head would be. I'm sorry, Leila. It was the best crucifix that I could give you.  
  
"Goodbye." I whisper as I turn to leave, "Goodbye Leila."  
  
"I love you."  
  
I scold myself for being a fool and hurry away from the site, aiming to catch up with the others.  
  
Goodbye. 


End file.
